Hella

I woke up early this morning and made it to campus in time to grab some breakfast in Huntsman Hall. Upon arrival in the Baker Forum, I quickly found the mini-cohort to which I had been assigned. Just as at Winter Welcome, the names were events, groups, or other notable things about the Wharton experience; I happened to be in the Wharton 54 mini-cohort. Around 9, we followed our leaders to our assigned rooms and listened to a quick introduction. The ice breaker this time was to break out into groups of 5-6 and try to see what connections we had among each other. I wound up with a partner from Austin (I currently live there) and her husband is in the same industry as me.

After about 40 minutes of overview and the ice breaker, we headed to the archeology museum for the Dean’s Address. The three co-chairs for Welcome Weekend briefly spoke followed by the Director of Admissions, the Dean, and a keynote speaker who is also a Wharton alum. The final speaker, a marketing professor, delivered a very energetic but brief closing. We headed back up to Huntsman after this.

At this point (a little after 11), some of us were starving and we tried to go claim our box lunches a tad early but were asked to wait until the rest of our mini-cohort arrived. We realized we should be back in the assigned room for the Mock Class. We returned to a 7 page case on management. After we had time to read the material, a professor led us in a great discussion much like we’ll have as students next year. Though we were still a little behind schedule, the professor made sure to make all the points he wanted to mention and this experience turned out to be a lot more interesting than I had originally expected (I wasn’t sure how a “fake” class would go?).

We ventured over to claim our box lunches. There was a choice of a roasted chicken sandwich, a tuna salad sandwich, and a portabello mushroom something. I opted for the roasted chicken and it came with a pasta salad and two cookies. To try and get the schedule back on track, we woofed down on lunches while in front of a professor panel. There were two very informative professors, one in accounting and another in statistics, who fielded a range of questions. A lot of people were curious about the specifics of pre-term and we were urged that we really didn’t need to do advanced preparation before August. Everything we need to get up to speed will be covered before we begin our first quarter.

Next up was the Club Expo where representatives from various student clubs were all in a couple of buildings to talk to admits and inform us about their groups. I picked up some information on a few clubs and also bought tickets for tomorrow night’s closing party. During the Expo, I was running into a lot of the friends I’ve made from the Welcome events so far. I also found the second year who called to congratulate me on my admission back in December.

There was a leadership event planned from 1:30-3:00 but I slipped away for a fun lunch with this second year student at a little salad shop called Gia Pronto just south of Vance Hall (location of Pub). The place was started and is run by a WG’02. While I only had a soda, it was fun to catch up on chit chat, talk about the evening’s plans, and ask some more questions that were on my mind.

We headed back over to Huntsman where we made a quick stop in the admissions office and then waited outside the rooms for the Housing Panels to start. I decided not to attend the housing panel because I had already signed on an apartment about two weeks ago. I mentioned that I planned to call and follow up with the leasing office later this afternoon to check on the status of the paperwork. After reviewing the schedule, I decided to call it an afternoon and headed over to the 2nd floor of the Penn Bookstore to purchase some Septa tokens to ride the trolley back to Center City. When I left the bookstore, I realized what a nice day it was and decided to make the walk back instead. I’ll use the tokens eventually anyway.

I returned to the hotel and called the apartment where I leased to leave a voicemail. About 5 minutes later, I got a call back from a leasing agent. She planned to call me all along today and didn’t realize I had just left a message. What a coincidence! She had great news; the application was approved. We discussed the terms of the lease and I managed to arrange the start date to be mid-July allowing me minimal overlap with my present lease. I also agreed to a 2-year lease to lock in a lower rate for the second year and put a ceiling on any possible rent increases.

Conveniently, I’m planning to attend a Marketing Club Social in the building I’ll be living at next year. It’ll be great to talk to some of the people who live there and get the inside scoop about being a resident.

Later tonight, I’m sure the usual suspects will meet up for some nightlife but I’m planning to come in again at a decent hour so tomorrow isn’t a huge headache (literally!) :D

Filed under: B-School